In today's computing environments, it is often desirable to backup computer data by copying and archiving the data (e.g., creating a backup image) so that the data may be restored after a data loss event (e.g., hardware failure, etc.). Generally, there are at least two types of backup applications that are implemented in this regard. File-level backup applications copy data from a source location to a backup location on a file-by-file basis regardless of where the data of the file is physically stored. This means that the backup application attempts to build and replicate the original file by reading the logical file system present on the original location. The granularity of the resulting backup entities for file-level backups is therefore individual files. Block-level backup applications, on the other hand, bypass the file system and perform backups of entire volumes of data from the original location. One advantage of bypassing the file system in such a manner is that there is no penalty in performance in cases where the original location contains large numbers of files (such performance impacts may take place if file-level backup were to be used). As a result of bypassing the file system, the granularity of the resulting backup entity for block-level backups is therefore the entire volume's image (i.e., binary image).
When restoring data from backup, it is often desirable to enable users to view and select which individual files they would like to restore rather than requiring a full restore of the entire volume, which can be substantial in size. In order to perform such file-level recovery (FLR), the operating system has mounted the backup image, thereby exposing the file system of image.